


The Local Gods

by StudentOfEtherium



Category: Original Work
Genre: Folklore, Gen, Inspired by a Mountain Goats Song, Nighttime, Not Beta Read, POV First Person, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:00:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25738438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StudentOfEtherium/pseuds/StudentOfEtherium
Summary: Don't forget to pray to the local gods. You never know who might be hungry.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	The Local Gods

“Don't forget to pray to the local gods.” the man said. He moved himself closer to me. “You never know who might be hungry.” He laughed. I nodded at his words, before responding. “I've never been particularly religious, but my country’s deities are far less active than the ones here.” The man shook his head. “Can't imagine that. The gods are part of everything in our life. Wellness of the crops, health of our people, and the safety of travelers such as yourself.” I nodded. “So I've heard. I've visited a few shrines now, on my travels here. It's always interesting to see.”

The man poured himself more whiskey. He gestured to me to ask if I wanted more, to which I shook my head. “This isn't my final stop tonight and I would rather be able to trust myself to get around the village.” The man nodded and started drinking from his cup. I shuffled my papers around before starting my query. “So, what experiences have you had with the gods of this land?”

* * *

Hours passed and eventually, I'd gotten through my questions. I thanked the man before leaving. He'd given me directions to the town shrine, which I made my way towards. Once there, I made a quick prayer, before leaving. My destination was a town further up the mountain, in a bamboo forest. Wanting to make it there before too late, I left with haste and headed off. 

Time passed as I walked, and in time, the sun began to set. The stairs continued further for as long as I could see, but as I stopped for a short rest, I spied a path. Deciding a small detour wouldn't be too much of an issue, I stepped off the path. It led me away from the main trail and across the mountain, while never gaining elevation.

As I followed the new path, the moons began to rise. They provided light, which led me to snuff the torch I was carrying. I made my way along a ways further like this, until I started seeing lights in the distance through stalks and branches. Thinking I'd accidentally stumbled across my destination despite my detour, I picked up my pace. However, the lights never seemed to get closer. Confused, I continued down the path. 

Some time later, I came to a split. The lights continued in the middle, seemingly the destination of either road. With no markings to tell me which was ideal, I took the path to my left.

I continued the left path for at least a mile. It led further up the mountain, so I assumed it was the correct path. The lights never got any closer to me, however after several miles they began to grow more distant as the path started winding. It wasn't long until I realized I needed to turn back. When I did so, however, I found the path behind me gone. I stumbled back in the direction I had taken myself for a number of minutes, but I never found the trail again. Due to the winding nature of the path, I quickly lost track of my direction. I stumbled through brambles and trees across the mountain for what felt like hours. My path was aimless and I had long since given up making my way in any logical order.

I continued like this until I heard a frightening sound. Somewhere in front of me, hiding the darkness, an unknown beast growled. I decided quite quickly to not linger. I turned around and with great haste, retreated. I heard trees crashing behind me. I picked up my pace of retreat. The crashing contained getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, I saw a small weathered shrine laying on the group. Remembering the man's words from earlier, I leaned down and prayed. The sounds behind me grew louder and louder as the unknown beast approached until suddenly, they stopped. I turned back around, but saw nothing besides crushed trees and other fauna. I took a sigh of relief and gathered my senses once more. As I did, I realized I could see the original path. I hurried back and resumed my journey as originally intended.

**Author's Note:**

> so the actual lyric of the song is "It never hurts to give thanks to the local gods // You never know who might be hungry", but i felt this scanned better
> 
> this is an original setting I'm developing and it's a mix of Irish and Japanese folklore (plus some Norse but that doesn't really show up here). i was thinking of ways i could develop it more, so i decided to try writing some folklore for this setting. this shouldn't be read as a genuine account, but as the experiences of someone being retold after the fact in larger collection of stories (that i may or may not end up writing at some point)
> 
> I'm not entirely happy with the final product, but ive been working on this since April despite how short it is so i decided i should just finish it and release it sooner than later, which is where i am now
> 
> oh also this is based on one of the lyrics to Younger by the Mountain Goats, which inspired this fic


End file.
